Since the dawn of your academic career, standardized testing has been an inherent characteristic of a classic public school education. At the end of every school year growing up, we all got together with the rest of the students in our grade to take those god-awful standardized tests that we were all forced to take. While even these exams were almost silly and not a true measure of intelligence, we all took them in stride and got them over with.
Even getting into college requires you to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT. Despite how intelligent one may be, this test isn’t even a measure of intelligence or how prepared you are for college, it’s simply a number given to you based on how well you take that specific test. I knew countless numbers of people who did not score very well on the SAT but had great grades in school. I also found the opposite; students who took the SAT prep courses and did amazingly well on the SAT often had mediocre grades. How is this supposed to measure a student’s readiness for college? I don’t see how a college admissions board can take this seriously into consideration for admission into a college. Additionally, none of the skills used to take the SAT were applicable in college. Being a senior in college, I can easily say that the SAT is not an accurate measure of college readiness.
Now I find myself in the same boat as when I was a senior in high school. I am about to graduate and I am forced to take the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) to get into graduate school. Not only does this exam cost a whopping $200 but it also is four hours long and is only offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Additionally, it is basically just a glorified SAT, with a math, English, and writing portion. All the test deals with are silly algebra-based math questions and vocabulary words that no one will use as well as the type of essays you haven’t had to write since high school. Not to mention I am a biology major. None of the questions have anything to do with what I learned as an undergraduate and they will not have anything to do with what I will learn as a graduate student studying biology.
There are several other options to determine if a student is ready for graduate study, and they don’t have anything to do with the arbitrarily chosen subjects that make up standardized testing across the country. For example, a university could put forth standards and require exit exams based upon majors that future schools may use. Or, the graduate school could require its own entrance exam, also based on subject. There are several ways to eliminate the GRE since it really doesn’t say much of anything about how smart you are or how good you are at your major. Why even require it, then?
Until some higher-ups realize how silly they are, students like myself will be forced into taking generalized tests that have nothing to do with specific majors. It is extremely unfortunate but since we are stuck with it, for now, all I can say is rip it off like a four hour long Band-Aid, and get it over with.
